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Sam’s second grade class did a puppet show last school year and I thought it was about time to make a post about it. The class broke into groups and did a tiny puppet show about a story they read in class that year. Sam’s group did theirs on Tops and Bottoms. The kids prerecorded their story so they could concentrate on working their puppets and props. I was not on my best form that day taking pictures so I only got one good picture. Here it is:

Sam is the rabbit on the left.

The cabinet guy got done with his work for today and here is the semi-finished product.

A couple of months ago we decided to finish our basement. Brian thought that it would also be a great time to get cabinets put in his office. Today was the day that they got put in. Even though there are a few more touch ups to be done on them, I think they turned out really nice.

It finally happened about a month ago, Diana taught herself to ride a bike without training wheels. I am so glad she was not like Anne or Caroline who fussed and fretted about riding without training wheels. All of Diana’s friends on the street learned how to ride a bike last year so Diana decided that it was her turn. She got on our littlest bike and kept on trying to ride it until she was successful. Here are the pictures to prove it:

This year our ward did a Fathers and Sons campout in the mountains outside Fairview, Utah. Given that camping isn’t my favorite thing, and given the fact that we had recently been camping, I wasn’t really thrilled about going; however, Sam was looking forward to it and I certainly have fond memories of going to Fathers and Sons campout with my dad when I was a boy so I wanted him to have those same memories. It’s odd how something that seemed so much fun when I was a kid doesn’t seem all that much fun anymore when I’m an adult. In our family we call those type of things “corner window” experiences – in honor of Grandpa Kent.

The plan was for each family to cook their own dinner while the ward would supply breakfast. I kind of enjoyed cooking with the dutch oven when we were camping so I thought I would give it another try. This time I planned to cook up some hot dogs and baked beans. When we got to the campground, I noticed all the other dads had brought KFC, Chick-Fil-A, Subway sandwiches and potato chips. I felt like a dork as I spent an hour cooking dinner while everyone else ate their pre-made dinners and ran off to play on the zip-line. In the end, my dutch oven pork and beans were a total flop. They took forever to cook so we ended up eating in the dark, they had no taste – very bland, and Sam ate his fill of everyone’s left over potato chips before dinner was even ready. Oh well, lesson learned. Next time it’s Chick-Fil-A and potato chips for us.

Sam’s favorite thing on the campout was riding the zip-line. All the boys lined up and took turns. They zipped over and over again until it was too dark to see and the missionary couple that runs the campground shut down the zipline for the night.

Sam on the zip line

My favorite thing about the campout was teasing Sam about the bears. There were signs all over warning that it was bear country and to be careful about leaving food out. Sam took this to heart and was very concerned about bears in the night. I had brought a tent in case Sam wanted to sleep in it but he was too concerned about bears ripping up the tent so we slept in the back of the minivan (which I prefer anyway). He was also concerned that bears would break into the car to eat us. He thought that maybe after dark we should just head home instead of risking the possibility of encountering a bear at the campground. I told him a bear wouldn’t attack us in the car when there were so many other guys in tents that were easier pickings. That seemed to satisfy him.

In the end we didn’t see a bear but we did see a deer walk right through the middle of our camp:

Not a bear

I was busy with school this year so we didn’t have time to take a fancy family vacation. Instead we decided to go camping. Somewhere I had read that Tony Grove Lake in the Cache National Forest was a decent place for beginning campers so, without ever seeing the place, I reserved a campsite on the internet.

Tony Grove Lake 2010

It actually turned out to be a good campground but our particular site was a bit disappointing as it was situated on a steep hill. There was a semi-flat place higher up on the hill with enough room to pitch our big family tent and there was a smaller flat place near the campfire with room to pitch the two-man tent. Emily and Anne occupied the two-man tent while Nancy, Caroline Sam, Diana, and I grouped together in the big family tent.

The older girls' tent

As expected with an 8 year old boy, the campfire was simply irresistible to Sam. He spent all of his time poking sticks in, taking them out, putting more wood on the fire when we were trying to let it die down, and setting other bits of wood around the fire pit on fire. Notice the burning log outside the fire pit and the look on his face just after getting a tongue lashing from me for it.

The campfire was irresistible for Sam

We took our dutch oven camping and tried several different recipes from the booklet that came with it. The favorite was Mountain Man Breakfast in the morning. Somehow everything tastes better when camping. I wasn’t adventurous enough to try cooking a fancy cobbler dessert in the dutch oven but the kids didn’t seem to mind as they enjoyed making s’mores each night.

On the trail to Coldwater Springs

One of the days we took a hike up to Coldwater Springs. Actually, we didn’t know we were going to Coldwater springs – we just decided to hike up the hiking trail a little ways. After about a mile we came to a sign that said Coldwater Springs was 2 miles away. The weather was nice and the kids seemed to be enjoying the hike so we decided to press on to the springs.

On the trail to Coldwater Springs

The springs were flowing and the water was indeed cold. The water was probably safe to drink but I decided to be on the cautious side and wouldn’t let the kids drink out of it for fear of getting giardia or some other parasite.

The view from Coldwater Springs

Another day we had fun hiking around Tony Grove Lake. Tony Grove is a high mountain lake so it was still chilly at times, even in August, but aside from that the weather was great the whole time we were there.

Hiking around Tony Grove Lake

A beautiful view

In general the kids enjoyed puttering around the camp site and generally seemed to have a good time. My biggest problems with camping are the noise at night (the squirrels and chipmunks and other wildlife chattered non-stop all night) and the fact that a tiny camp mattress and a cramped sleeping bag are not the same as a king-size bed. I also don’t like to stink like campfire smoke. If it weren’t for those things, camping would actually be pretty enjoyable.

Fun around the campsite

Caroline

By the end of 3 days, everyone had their fill of camping and were ready to go. In the end, it turned out to be a pretty fun trip for us amateur campers. Perhaps we’ll making a summer campout a regular occurrence… well, perhaps not.

The kids loved the tree stump

Waiting for dinner

I noticed that I haven’t posted these pictures yet. When the kids were still out of school we decided to go to downtown Salt Lake City. We wanted to go to the DUP(Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) museum, but it was closed for construction. I did not want to pay for parking so we decided to go to Sugarhouse park, have a picnic and play. It was a pretty windy day, so as soon as we were done with lunch the bigger girls decided it was more fun to read a book in the car than to go play. So I took the other three kids and we had fun on the playground and at the stream.

As part of the project to finish our basement, we had the contract provide us a bid on building shelving in the basement storage room and in the garage. The pricing was reasonable and the contractor started on it right away while waiting for the building permits for the basement.

Overhead shelves in the garage

Nancy and I were both pleased with the results. Especially with the garage shelves where we can now get stuff off the garage floor and out of the way. The only problem is that Nancy is on the shorter side so she tends to load everything on the bottom shelves and leave the top shelves sparsely populated. It’s that way in our kitchen and in various closets throughout the house.

Storage room

Thanks to Aaron the contractor for the good work he did on the shelves. We look forward to getting the rest of the basement finished.

Anne's Birthday 2010

(08/18/2011)Unfortunately, it’s been more than a year since I focused on updating the website. Now that I’m done with school, I’ve got much more time in the evenings so I’m going back in time and adding events that I previously missed. I can’t remember what we did for Anne’s birthday in 2010 but I don’t believe she got a “friend” party. Anne, I’m sorry that the best I could do was a picture without much commentary.

It’s pinewood derby time and my turn to participate in the ritual of deciding how much work I should let Sam do on his own and how much work I should do so that we can do well in the race. Fortunately for me, Sam didn’t have much patience for sanding and balancing and those type of tasks so after letting him work on the car until he was bored with it there was plenty of work left for me to do. Unfortunately for Sam, I’m not the handiest guy when it comes to tools so my efforts on the car didn’t really help our chances of winning all that much.

Sam painted it himself

When I asked Sam what color he wanted to paint it, his response was “blue”. Naturally. He also wanted to put a cool BYU logo on it but we were running out of time and I couldn’t find a good looking sticker so he ended up having to do the paint it on himself.

Presenting his car

I remember Pinewood Derby from when I was a boy: the celebration of those who won the Pinewood derby and the tears of those who didn’t. These days, the thought of any boy suffering tears of defeat causes sensitive people to swoon and faint and so we do an “everyone gets an award” cop-out. Thus, while Sam didn’t win anything because of the speed of his car, he won a “most blue” certificate or something like that. Ugh. Sorry if you’re one of the swooners and fainters, but I really don’t like the “everyone is a winner” mentality. The world is a tough place and I don’t feel the need to shelter kids from certain tough lessons in life. As The Stranger from The Big Lebowski says, “Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you”. Learning hard lessons as a boy is what life is all about and I sometimes wonder if we’re not making the world too soft and bubble-wrapped for our “precious little angels”.

He didn't win but it was still fun

Anyway, Sam had fun after the race just playing with his car on the track. I had fun watching Sam and watching the other parents until I had to leave and go to class. Of course, after doing Pinewood Derby once I learned what engineering mistakes Sand and I made. Hopefully we get another chance to correct some of those mistakes next time and maybe get a real award instead of “most blue”.